ipl-logo

The Pros And Cons Of The Electoral College

1821 Words8 Pages

One of Greatest aspects of the United States is it’s democracy. The government allows people to choose the next president every four years, Giving the power to the people. To electoral college was put in place to make sure everyone had a say in the election, not just the most populous states. In order to understand the electoral college, it is vital to see how it was created, why it was created, and what it is. The electoral college is, “a body of people representing the states of the US, formally cast votes for the election of the president and vice president” (Kimberling). Come election time, the states that make up the United States are worth a certain number of votes. That number depends on the population of the state. For example, California has 55 electoral votes, the most, because it is the most populous, and the District of Columbia is one of the smallest and has 3 electoral votes. In …show more content…

Specifically, there have been four elections where a candidate who won the popular vote, did not win the presidency. This is controversial because the people who supported the losing candidate believe that candidate should have won because the greater population voted for him or her. In 1876, Rutherford B. Hayes won the election (by a margin of one electoral vote), but he lost the popular vote by more than 250,000 ballots to Samuel J. Tilden. Rutherford B Hayes was named president elect and served for one presidential term. In 1888, Benjamin Harrison received 233 electoral votes to Grover Cleveland’s 168, winning the presidency. But Harrison lost the popular vote by more than 90,000 votes. Benjamin Harrison also served for one presidential term. There are two more times most recently where the candidate who won the popular vote lost the presidency. Al Gore in 2000 and Hillary Clinton in 2016 were two democrats who did not give up without a hard

Show More
Related

  • The Pros And Cons Of The Electoral College

    364 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Framers of the Constitution created the Electoral College as a compromise between electing the President directly by popular vote and having Congress choose the President. At the time, there were concerns about electing the President directly, such as the lack of communication and travel infrastructure to facilitate a national election and the possibility of uneducated voters being easily swayed by popular demagogues. Additionally, the Framers were concerned that smaller states would be overshadowed by larger ones in a direct popular vote. The Electoral College has several pros and cons.

    Read More

  • The Pros And Cons Of The United States Electoral College

    685 Words  | 3 Pages

    The United States of America Electoral College is a team who’s accountable for choosing the President as well as the Vice President, virtually every four years. The United States is known not to be a “true” democracy because of the electoral college. There are rules within the United States Electoral College that are straightforward. Every state is provided several electors.

    Read More

  • How Has The Electoral College Changed The Election Of 1800

    707 Words  | 3 Pages

    The Electoral College condenses the population’s vote for the President of the United States into 538 electoral votes. After all the votes are tallied,

    Read More

  • The Pros And Cons Of The Electoral College

    518 Words  | 3 Pages

    The electoral college is a system where people vote for electors. Then the electors communicate with the people and the electors pick the candidates. Next the people vote between democrat and republican parties. The problems with the electoral college voting system is that the electors do not listen to what the people want and they just make their own decisions, there is a chance of a tie in the electoral college, and also the people don't even get to vote on who the electors are. Furthermore, a very large problem with the electoral college is that the electors are not listening to the people.

    Read More

  • What Are The Pros And Cons Of The Electoral College

    577 Words  | 3 Pages

    The Electoral College is “a body of people representing the states of the US, who formally cast votes for the election of the president and vice president.” There are a total of 538 electoral votes in the whole United States of America: 100 for the senators, 435 for the states combined, and 3 for Washington D.C. Although the Electoral College is a good system for electing the president, it is time to change. There are many flaws for this system. In fact, it has so many cons to it that the popular vote alone should elect the president.

    Read More

  • Dbq Electoral College

    1594 Words  | 7 Pages

    Benjamin Harrison became president in 1888 after favoring the Tariff policy which was the election's principal issue. “Harrison swept the majority of the North and Midwest by a margin of 1% or lower to achieve the majority of the electoral votes” (Kelly). Cleveland lacked a strong campaign and his different policies on currency and tariff reform created many enemies among farmers and industrialists. In 2000 George W. Bush won the election over Al Gore.

    Read More

  • The Pros And Cons Of The Electoral College

    1308 Words  | 6 Pages

    The Electoral College is a group of 538 votes used to decide the president. The number, 538, is the number of senators plus the number of representatives in the U.S. These votes are given to states depending on that state's population. California has the most electoral college votes, they have 55. While places like Wyoming and Alaska have only three electoral college votes.

    Read More

  • Electoral College Pros And Cons

    634 Words  | 3 Pages

    The Electoral College is the election of the president and vice president where for over a hundred years the electors were equired to be chosen by the voters with the exception of Members of Cogress. When each state votes, “the voters cast a single vote for their preferred candidates, they are actually voting for the slate of electors in their state pledged to those candidates” (Neale 2017, p.1) so the people have a voice, but their are knowledgeable electors who have the final say. It is also very possible with this set up that the winner of the electoral votes does not always get the popular vote (Posner, 2012). Madison believed that the Electoral College would “keep the states involved, but retain the role of the people” (Ornstein 2001,

    Read More

  • The Pros And Cons Of The Electoral College

    813 Words  | 4 Pages

    Over many years there have been a few presidential electors who had been chosen by the electoral college instead of popular votes. An example of when the electoral college had picked the president was in the 2016 presidential election with Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. Many

    Read More

  • Declaration Of Independence Research Paper

    1380 Words  | 6 Pages

    The Electoral College is a group of electors who have the final say who the president will be based on who wins the popular vote in each state. , no matter what the results of the popular vote showed. The electoral college chose Donald Trump as the future president, regardless of the fact that Hillary Clinton won the popular

    Read More

  • Electoral College Meaning

    939 Words  | 4 Pages

    Many believe that they are voting directly towards a President or Vice President on election day (“Electoral College”). Elector names are not on ballots therefore making the citizen believe it is a straight vote unless informed about the system (“Electoral College”). Overall the Electoral College is an important aspect when it comes to the presidential elections. Even if the majority of votes are in favor of a candidate throughout the country, the candidate might not secure the presidency if he or she do not win with the necessary amount of electoral votes.

    Read More

  • The Electoral College Process

    399 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Electoral College plays a very important role in the presidential election. The founding fathers established it in the constitution as a compromise between election of the president by a vote in congress and election of the president by a popular vote of qualified citizens. A majority of 270 electoral votes is required to elect the president. Sad to say that gaining all the popular votes doesn 't guarantee you a win. On four occasions, the winner of the popular vote did not capture the presidency.

    Read More

  • Argumentative Essay On Electoral College

    975 Words  | 4 Pages

    The Electoral College is the process to which the United States elects the President, and the Vice President. The founders of the Constitution came up with this process. This was done to give additional power to the small states, and it was done to satisfy them. It works by the citizens of the United States electing representatives called electors. Each state is given the same amount of electors, as they are members of congress.

    Read More

  • Electoral College Pros And Cons

    613 Words  | 3 Pages

    To begin, the Electoral College takes into account the individual states that people live in. This is considered arbitrary since people now identify with the nation as a whole rather than their individual states. Since the Electoral College is “winner take all”, this renders certain sections of the country as “already decided”. People who choose to deviate from the

    Read More

  • Should Electoral College Be Abolished Essay

    796 Words  | 4 Pages

    Electoral college has been with us since the birth of the constitution, and to this day we are still using this type of system to this day. The Electoral College is a system that the United States uses to elect our upcoming presidents and vice presidents. Each state has electors equal to their senate member and house of representatives, however who ever gets the highest popular vote in the state gets the electoral vote. The issue is the Electoral College do not give votes to the people, but to the states. Which has some unfair consequences.

    Read More

More about The Pros And Cons Of The Electoral College

Open Document